South Africa had by 6pm yesterday vaccinated 23 059 health care workers, Minister of Health, Dr Zweli Mkhize told Parliament today.
“Beyond that cut off time, we vaccinated over 8 000 health care workers in yesterday’s working hours – we are on course to complete the first 40 000 by Wednesday and the provinces have committed to the target of 80 000 vaccines completed two weeks from the date of arrival,” he added.
The Minister informed parliament that the next batch of 80 000 doses of Johnson and Johnson vaccines will arrive this Saturday, 27 February.
He said that the country’s health care workers, had not been spared the devastating effects of the second Covid-19 wave in South Africa, driven by the 501Y.V2 variant.
“Statistics show that in South Africa, health care workers are 3-4 times more likely than the general population to develop COVID-19. This is reflected by the 54 685 health workers who have been infected in the public sector, with 779 having passed on.”
These workers bore the brunt of the psychosocial distress of the pandemic by having to fulfil many roles for patients who have been in isolation in their facilities.
“For them, vaccination represents hope of relief from the unrelenting pressures of this pandemic. It is for these reasons that we did everything in our power to ensure that key developments in the characteristics of the virus did not derail us from our plans to begin vaccination in February. We were never asleep, we chose a strategy that was guided by science as we did not have the financial muscle to make unhedged bets.”
The Minister noted that this approach had paid off as SA had been nimble and precise around the tricky issue of the variant.
“The procurement of the vaccines has been a complex process that required negotiations with multinational manufacturers of vaccines in the face of vaccine nationalism and protectionism.”
The Minister stated that SA had signed Non Disclosure Agreements (NDAs) with most of the leading vaccine manufacturers. “This allows us to gain critical insight into their supply lines, their manufacturing plans and possible blockages in the manufacturing pipeline. It also allows us to pursue negotiations over prices, volumes and timelines for delivery.”
He explained that it is within these NDA’s that certain other conditions have come to light- amongst these have been the principles of indemnity to be provided by government to its citizens for any adverse effects arising from vaccinations.
“Some companies have required that we create a no fault compensation fund as an expression of such indemnity. Having consulted a number of other countries it has become clear that these conditions are standard across the globe. Our signing of the final agreements has required that we thoroughly consult with Treasury to provide guidance so that the PFMA and all relevant legislation is upheld before final agreements are signed.”
The Minister referred to this process as “quite onerous because we find ourselves without precedence in this new situation.
“Once all these contracts are signed they will be available for Treasury and the Auditor General’s office for their perusal. We are ventilating this to correct the erroneous impression that there are questions that we are avoiding because of the NDA’s.
“Rather, it should be understood that NDA’s must be respected in order to protect the process of timely acquisition of vaccines.”
The Minister explained that the Ministerial Advisory Committee has grouped vaccines into three groups. The first group are vaccines for current Implementation that should be considered for immediate use. These are J&J, Moderna and Pfizer.
SA has placed “huge orders” on the J&J and Pfizer vaccines which will be finalized in the next few days and announced when concluded, whilst discussions are ongoing with Moderna and no finality has been reached yet.
The second category are vaccines in which SA has an interest and appear very promising on available data, but currently require additional technical information. These include Gamaleya/ Sputnik V (Russia); Sinopharm and Sinovac (China).
“For these candidates, NDA’s have been signed and our negotiations are advanced. They have offered several millions of vaccines subject to the finalization of the outstanding information and price negotiation. Under our guidance they have made submissions to SAHPRA. Proposals have been made for joint research to be undertaken as well.”
The final group are vaccines that may not be suitable for immediate use in South Africa and these include Astra Zeneca and Novavax.
“These relate more to the condition of the variant – these vaccines can be well utilized in different parts of the world,” the Minister said.
“We are constantly being pushed for delivery timelines and are often criticized for not providing these while we are still in negotiations, but we must indicate that these are only solidified once a prepayment is made. Even then we, like everyone else in the world, are at the mercy of the manufacturers ability to meet their commitments.”
The Minister said that the Department of Health and Treasury have concluded a proposal that will provide for a mechanism to compensate any citizen who suffers an adverse effect from the Johnson and Johnson and Pfizer vaccine. In principle, this proposed mechanism would provide for recourse for any adverse effect suffered from any vaccine that has been approved for rollout by SAHPRA.
“The Minister of Finance will make the announcements in his Budget Speech and expand on this mechanism.”
It was also confirmed to Parliament that in regards to the transferring of the Astra Zeneca stock to the African Union, SA was selling the doses, and not donating. “Therefore there is no wasteful or fruitless expenditure. We have learnt from the AU that these will be distribute to about 20 countries in the continent, who will be in a position to begin protecting their frontline health care workers,” the Minister said.
